Obama performed in a basketball arena, the Target Center, which seats around 20,000; the crowd was estimated at 15,000. In a moment of candor the Times even gives away their mission:

On a day when demonstrators crammed onto the west lawn of the Capitol
to protest what they regard as Mr. Obama’s brand of big government,
including his health plan, the images of screaming, cheering Obama
supporters here provided a welcome visual counterpoint for the White
House.

Crowd estimates at the Washington DC event were more dramatic. The Times leads with "a sea of protestors" but later settles for "tens of thousands", probably because "oodles and boodles" didn't meet their editorial standards.

Comments

But no one's shown an aerial photograph from yesterday; isn't that odd?

considering that DC is a no fly zone and it was too cloudy for satelite pics, apparently? No, not real odd. What I do find odd is that apparently folks weren't allowed on some of the taller buildings to take pictures. Well, actually, I don't find that odd either. What I do find odd, is a bunch of Axleturfers showing up at conservative sites to beat into everybody how inconsequential this was.

TRue, PO. if we're so unconsequential we should be encouraged not derided, of course
the opposite is quite nearly true, the Leviathan has run across a minefield,
"they've blown the transaxle and they're grinding gears" to cross metaphors

Sorry, Herr Loch vom Arsch. The view from the top of the monument is lovely; however, it would not have helped. The marchers were not allowed on the mall and had to fan out around the base of the Capitol.

Reposting bishop's link to tonight's 60 Minutes transcript. I only had time to read p. 1 tonight, but Obama mentions "the plan that we've designed" and, unsurprisingly, Kroft expressed no interest in what plan he's talking about.

PA avenue was covered from Freedom Plaza to the Capital; that is about 1 mile (WH to Capitol 1.2 miles) of people on a street 6 lanes wide or 80 ft from Googe data. A mile is 5280 ft x 80 ft at 2.5 sq feet per person (Obama's inauguration number for the mall) gives us over 168,960 people just there at any one time. This human traffic lasted for 3 hours from the media. With the average human walking speed of 3 miles per hour, that is 168,960 people passing every a point every 33 minutes or over 3 hours being 9 x 168,960 = 1,520,640. Although, like me not all people started at Freedom Plaza. Many went directly to the Capitol for good "seats" and not all came down PA Ave. The police also asked the protesters to leave the plaza two hours early. Nor does it count the time after 12;30 when people were still arriving or the people on the sidewalks along PA Ave. So the number of 1.5 million may be low.

Now even Powerline has been sucked in with the PK photo, getting it from a SayAnything post (which has at least has been corrected).

Right-wing propagandists aren't so picky about their sourcing.

What is high-larious is the pure conceit involved in all of this; you guys are soooooo convinced that the country is up in arms that you're dismayed and shocked... shocked! that only 70k showed up for your Day of Rage.

You guys will probably stay in denial until you lose the 2012 presidential election. At that point you might be open to some sensible actions toward rebuilding your party.

But for now it's all nazis and commies and Gadsden flags, pretending that you're representing reel 'muricans and providing a bulwark against dictatorship.

It all serves no purpose but to make yourselves feel good about your current situation, but in the long run the theatrics only demonstrate that you're not serious about governing.

I'm going through my pix for a slide show, which I had hoped to put up today. I've got one from almost exactly the same spot as the second photo (AP) on Hit's Amazing Photos site, so I guess it's not as amazing as I thought it was at the time! By the time I pull it together I'll have to throw in a protest pup, just to have a photo that nobody's already seen. I wonder who took the photos from the Capitol terraces? It was all fenced off from the public.

What's amusing, Leo, is that you've probably put in more time than everybody else here together, trying to persuade yourself that only 70K showed up. I just hope that the undercount is as reassuring to the Dems as it is to you. The less they think they have to worry about, the better.

I wish one of you talented writers would do a parody of Sarah Palin giving Obama's Wednesday night health scare speech. The media would of laughed her off the stage, if she had said half of what Obama promised.

Something like:

We are going to pay for this new government health care program that will cover everyone by eliminating all the fraud from our other government health care program Medicare. You betcha.

You see, our old Medicare program has lost billions of dollars and enough to pay for our new shiny program. You betcha.

Our new program will be more efficient than our other government programs that lost billions of dollars each year like Amtrak, USP, DMV, Social Security and FEMA. You betcha!

Well, hopefully, you get the idea. Like I said we need a talented JOM writer. :)

Here's the AP story in The New York Times (via the web briefing) on the Census Bureau's decision to drop its association with ACORN. The story doesn't mention the prostitution videos from last week (and more are coming). How does a reporter and/or editor do that? Read the whole thing, the silences are staggering. It's Pravdaesque.

I was surprised when I read today's Boston Globe e-version that the DC Rally was not even mentioned at all. Not one story about the DC rally. But Zero's speech in Minnesota was covered as the high story of the day.

One more little link in the Obama story. At our Church/School Bazaar I visited a little bit with one of the Mom's/friends/nursery school teachers who grew up in Hawaii and lived there for years. She says that Hawaii is VERY racist against whites. Can't remember the slang they had for them. Between growing up a Muslim in Indonesia, and then being immersed in that culture in Hawaii, then in the slums of Chicago, it explains a lot. Obama has no clue about Americans.

Nice piece about the treasonous MSM by Ed Driscollhere. Pullout quote: The liberal media is failing for the exact same reason a dozen-plus anti-war films flopped: propaganda is dull. No matter your politics, people want stimulation and information, not affirmation.

You know, I never really thought about this way. Thanks, Ed! I never thought it possible, but you may have actually made me hate these lying, Marxist sons of bitches in a new and exciting way.

Let this one go, Po. It really does not exist much, except in some outlying regions of Hawaii. Certainly not at Punahou, and the crowd with whom Obama ran. I never experienced it personally, and the interracial mixing is pretty darned neutral. In fact, if there is any prejudice, it is against papolos, particularly from the Chinese and Japanese descendants.

"I suppose in airports we could tape petitions under the sets saying if you hate CNN and want another channel sign your name and address here."

Thats a great point. That desperately needs to be accomplished. Where do we start?

Second Point: As I recall, the whole point of Radio Free Europe was so that information could be available to those behind the curtain of Communist censorship. It was designed to break the propaganda stranglehold of the dictators over the people. Well here I now sit in Communist China, where in the daily Commie mouth organ paper I can read about the Tea Party Protestors, about counter protestors, and I have the opportunity to electronically comment on those stories via the China Daily website. Yet the broadcasts of the media in the Free World have almost completely censored those stories for the last 24-48 hours. We don't need a Radio Free Europe anymore. We need a Radio Free America.

I do not know if Obama is a Marxist, a Socialist, a Communist, or simply a stupidly naive American with exceptional hubris. I do know that to claim that he is any of those things is to his benefit, in that the MSM will then paint the asker of the question as unhinged, nutroots, etc. So a better way to wake folks up to the dangerousness of this President, whatever his personal beliefs, might be to ask the question this way.

If a committed Marxist/Communist/Socialist were trying to subvert the US Republic and Constitution, and turn the nation into a Socialist State, what actions would that individual be undertaking as President that would be different than the actions you are taking? For instance:

Would they be trying to slam thru this Health Care Bill exactly as you are, in order to massively increase the size and power of the State? Yes.

Would they be trying to foist Card Check legislation through that would massively enlarge Unions at the expense of private Enterprise? Yes.

Would they be trying to foist Cap and Trade Restrictions that would continue to cripple the economy, prevent new energy production, and push millions out of jobs into the roles of Government Welfare? Yes.

Would they be trying to use Federal Dollars to fund the National Endowment for the Arts to promote art that lauds and supports the political aims of Dear Leader? Yes.

Would they be trying to nationalize some of the biggest industries in the nation ala' Chrysler, and turn it's leadership over to the Unions? Yes.

Would they be trying to silence opposing voices via such Legislation as The Fairness Doctrine, or by having political Czars in the White House organizing commercial bouycots of sponsors of FOX News? Yes.

Would they be trying to have Federally Funded criminal organizations like ACORN run voting registration campaigns? Yes. Coaching illegal aliens on how to enter the US in quid pro quo's as potential future voters? Yes. And promote ACORN to the 2010 Census in order to gerrymander changes in Voting Districts, thereby solidifying supporters Congressional Seats? Yes.

Would they rush through a 787 Billion Stimulus package under the guise of crisis management, then neglect to use the money as actual stimulus by keeping it in reserve for cronyism payoffs and pet projects, while ordinary Americans suffer job loss and unemployment rises? Yes.

Then if all that is true, and Mister President, you are not a Marxist, Socialist, or Communist, why do you think that ramming through exactly the programs that a Marxist, Socialist or Communist would ram through will somehow turn out differently at the end than what they would seek to impose upon America?

Fresh Air, that is an excellent link to the Ed Driscoll column, but that is mostly John Nolte's work. I just put on another blog the statement that among the radicalizing influences in my life has been the 'stench of rot arising from the mainstream media'. I started the journey from liberalism listening to feminists defend Bill Clinton's behaviour.
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"Howlie" is the derisive term used to describe whites. I always found it somewhat charming and not the least bit offensive, much to the shock of my native Hawaiian friends.

Juxtaposed to the conspicuously provocative China Tariff idiocy sure to help jam the news cycle during the next few weeks, something quite unexpected happened.

New Hampshire's Secretary of State has announced they will investigate the matter of Obama's eligibility to be on New Hampshire 2008 POTUS ballot. The SoS is a Democrat but the State Legislator requesting the investigation is a Republican.

The paradigm of interest is that of birthers and seems originally hyperfocused on the BC/COLB issue. It may well bury the greater issue which I think runs to the core of the controversy: Obama's British Citizenship at birth in Hawaii; that he, as he has admitted, was born under the jurisdiction of the British government to a British father, and more importantly, the unanswered question as to what are the as yet undisclosed dates when Obama formally renounced his British Citizenship and renounced his status as a subject of the Crown, as such apparently can only be terminated through renouncement.

Some will no doubt continue to howl, but SCOTUS has indicated that the native born son of an alien is not considered to be “natural born” even if he is a US citizen at birth.

I know all those folks and radio shows well. We are blessed to have them and at home I am a frequent listener/watcher. But on the road I don't take a computer because I specifically want to force myself to deal with the info that is available wherever I go, as opposed to using the computer to access those guys. I'd rather be aware of how poisonous CNN International and BBC is to the rest of the world than have access to Rush on my laptop and earphones. It's painful, but I think it's worthwhile, because it keeps me angry about the daily damage they are doing and hopefully I can contribute to cleaning those weasles out and replacing them with decent media so desperately needed both domestically and internationally.

DC ACORN office was just an isolated incident...MD ACORN office was entrapment and illegal secret recording...

ACORN was quite insistent:

This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.
-Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer, ACORN

Well, what do you do if hundreds of thousands of people descend on Washington to stage a massive protest against Obama and the Democrats, motivated in large part by opposition to the health care reforms they are trying to ram through Congress?

I see that the representative Rappaport comments at the end of Berg's blog entry that he believes in the probity and intellectual ability of the New Hampshire Secretary of State and that he is aware of all the dimensions of the case against Obama's eligibility.

I see also that another Army officer is in court today about the legitimacy of Obama's orders.
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One of the things that has brought the birther controversy to a boil again is that it is now revealed that Nancy Pelosi signed two different forms certifying the nomination of Obama after the Democratic convention. I can find the article right now, in the Canada Free Press, but what I remember is that one certifies his eligibility, but the other merely notes his nomination. If, and it is a big if, the meaning of these two forms is that she backed off the firmer statement then she's been in on the cover-up also.

willem is concerned that the birth certificate issue will obscure what he believes is the real killer issue, dual citizenship, but I gather that Rappaport also showed the SOS a copy of a Kenyan BC with a footprint on it. This is not the famously hoaxed BC of a couple of months ago, but another one purportedly gathered by bribing guards at the hospital.
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Howard Kurtz today in the print WaPo - subheading "Establishment Outlets Missed Van Jones Story". So okay, fine...the tenor is Beck is a kook, but admittedly we missed the story. But the kicker is Mr. Kurtz also mentions Yosi Sargent of the NEA.

"He (Beck) accused the communications director of the National Endowment for the Arts, Yosi Sargent, of wanting to steer federal aid to "a bunch of hippie starving artists and dope-smoking progressives" as "blatant propaganda" for Obama. (The agency reassigned Sargent.)"

Any daily reader of the Post must be wondering Huh?, What?, who is this Sargent fellow?.....because the Post hasn't covered the NEA story either!!!

They toss a few crumbs about Acorn, or Rangel, but they save the feast for the college thesis of Rep. governor candidate McDonnell.

It is a hospital birth certificate and a Judge in California refused Obama's request for dismissal last week and set a hearing date for Oct. 5. Apparently, Obama's high priced lawyers didn't cow this judge.

daddy, I don't know perhaps we can all just bring sheets of paper with us to airports but most airports have anti-solicitation rules. Perhaps we need to set up a petition online which would be sent to authorities who run the major airports.
Does anyone have any idea on this?

Oh, a quick comment on Tort reform. It seems that my lil 'bro and his wife are having to change insurance companies because the company that she gets through her work is being sued for underpayment of claims, or some such. Not sure the exact details, but it seems they are going to fold.

A decade ago, they had the likes of Blumenthal, who started out his career, co- editing a book of conspiracy theories with the late Phillip Agee, who we know now was an active KGB/DGI agent. He did mostly the
cultural beat, where he denigrated the first
round of neocons. Now we have Klein, out of
Pandagon, one of the crazier blogs, actually
influencing the economics and health care debate. Yglesias, who almost boasts of his historical illiteracy, on one of the many Soros platforms, the same can be said for much of the up and coming 'brain trust' at
the Atlantic, like charming master Conor F., who crashed and burned at a vanity
project like Culture 11.

Now Van Jones, could not be exposed, because
it could not be admitted than Friedman was taken in by a fraud, ditto for Kolbert at the New Yorker. as well as a whole host of other publications. Yer the likes of Lloyd,
and Holdren and Susstein, seem to multiply, and their thoughts multiply until they become the consensus

Uh huh, c's son, and the lines don't change. If this actually was gained from the hospital, I'd be surprised, because I thought the Kenyan government had that locked down. Then again, they say the guard was bribed.

Who knows. What I do know is that this is an issue that at its simplest level is easily understood by everyone, that is Obama hasn't produced his birth certificate. At its complicated level, the dual citizenship, the most astute lawyers agree that the issue has not been settled by the Supreme Court.

Anybody care to guess what percentage of Saturday's marchers are aware of this issue?
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The media is, and has been, lyng to us for years. We're now discovering the extent of their bias and their continued lies because of the efforts of bloggers and new media. As a result, public trust and confidence in the media is plummeting.

this erosion of public trust and confidence in the media is really a large and important component of the Left's long term strategy, per Gramsci's "long march through the culture", to " ... slowly discredit and undermine its [Western culture's] institutions, values, and foundations."

Their goal is to set the conditions whereby "... eventually, the society would fall apart, opening the way to totalitarian socialism to rescue the mess."

I'm amused by the thought of Obama googling this birth certificate then taking off his shoes to look at his foot.

I've long thought that Obama was lied to about his origins, and that he only figured out how hazy his past was when it got too late for him to not run for President. His habit of lying was instilled in him at an early age, and considering the dynamic of his family, who doesn't think there was a lot of lying and posing going on?
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UK Daily Mail updated their story this morning. Far more honest than any American news outlet, their estimate is now 1 MILLION !
For some reason the link won't post here. It's a "Must Read" at the top of Lucianne.com

And, now we know why no Tea Partyers were allowed on the Mall
It was the National Council of Negro Women holding a reunion on the Mall.
"Don't let none of them teaparty racists get near us!"

This comment at Lucianne:Reply 18 - Posted by: Felixcat, 9/14/2009 7:52:10 AM (No. 5860301)
Although I live outside Northern Virginia, I was unable to attend due to a previous commitment. However, according to Dorothy Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women, holding their "Black family Reunion Celebration" on the Mall, too. The protestors " are a bad sign of democracy. I've never heard anyone say that they wished the other 43 presidents would fail." or as Vera Hope, opf Moutn rainier said: "I'm disgusted amd upset by the hostility. Let's call it was it was - just a disguise for right-wing racists. They are fermenting a climate of violence to provoke people." source: Washington Post.

Heh, and this one: Reply 29 - Posted by: Israel Putnam, 9/14/2009 8:17:12 AM (No. 5860382)
It was a great crowd. Without exception the people were courteous and intelligent....while at the opposite end of the mall a herd of angus cowswere playing their "music" loud enough to be heard eight blocks away.

Today's has to do with what happened in DC the day before 9/12 (which according to my 6 year old would be 9/11). It was a bit of a kerfuffle for the MSM, not unlike the AF One flyover photo op around Manhattan. But read the LUN and especially the comments. This is flyover country and the commenters couldn't be in DC for 9/12 but when you add up the numbers in DC maybe we should take a page out of Odrama's book and add up all the people who couldn't make it.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas)
“It’s hurting the spirit of this country,” Johnson said, citing concerns about what the rest of the world may think about a powerful nation where a significant segment of the population does not accept their elected leader as legitimate.

Did she, like the nice lady above never see the significant segment of the population who did not accept Bush?

Because if she did, I'm sure she expressed the same concern about Bush.

It's McClatchy, Jack, one of those other editorialists, was the one circulating the
'socialist is a code name for black' during
the campaign, are they the worst offenders, I'd say yes, because they have coverage in the midwest, that the Times doesn't automatically have

Good job PJM. Dawdle on getting Charlie's story up long enough, and Instapundit (of PJM himself) goes with a http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=21884>crowd analysis from Transterrestial, ensuring that Transterrial's post, not Charlie's, will go viral.

Recipe for fermented climate of violence
1. Take a nice, civil group of taxpayers from around the country, opposed to the expansion of the federal govt which would further destroy our republic;
2. Have them march politely past a group of black ladies who obviously see everything through a Democrat prism and who spend their days playing the game Race Card.
3. Then send someone from the Washington "Macaca" Post to report their impressions, the paper having utterly failed to report much on the growing administration scandals, the NEA, Van Jones, ACORN and run that up the flagpole as real reporting.

Serves:
No one with a brain
1,000,000,000 dummies
Nutritional value: Zero--all sugar and carp.

kim, just between us..I think the certificate is phony . I have no evidence but my eyes. Each day Obama looks more and more like Frank Marshall Davis--take a good look. He has not one single Obama feature that i can see.

Did anybody bother watching Bashizzle Obizzle on 60 Minutes last night? I can't stand to watch or listen to him at all (and am I the only person who gets extremely irked when well-meaning squishes like Medved fawn over his ability to give a speech?) but Laura Ingraham is skewering him this morning.

That guy is the very archetype of a deranged liberal. He's a guy who can dispassionately sift through baseball statistics to determine what makes players great and why, but when it comes to politics, he's just another apologist for leftwing liars and cheats.

Chaco, excellent article. I object to the full mall stuff at the beginning but also rate as the two most reliable the 1.5 million marching metric and your 800,000 spatial estimate. I'd average them then remember that the total who attended the thing were never all there at the same time, so I'd say 1.25 million, rounded up to tah, tah, the Congressional Democratic prediction, 2,000,000.
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